Crónica de la Orden de N. Seráfico P. S. Francisco, Provincia de San Pedro y San Pablo de Mechoacán en la Nueva España

xv+488 pages with appendices. Octavo (8 1/2" x 5") bound in quarter leather with gilt lettering to spine in stiff boards. From the library of Professor George M Foster. Second edition.

Alonso de la Rea was born in Queretaro in 1610. He wrote his Cronica in 1637-1639, providing data on Michoacán and Jalisco. For many matters he leaned heavily on Torquemada, who in turn had copied them from Mendieta. Ricard, quoting an 18th century opinion, mentions that Rea lacked interest in chronology to an excessive degree. His work was however, an official and methodical chronicle of the province, preserving considerable detail about it. Rea's Cronica ... 1639 was first published in 1643, and is now a bibliographical rarity. The volume is divided into three books, totaling 92 chapter. Book 1 describes the region, products, people, their dealings with Aztecs, their general traits, religious rites, the last native emperors, and coming of the Spaniards. This is followed by arrival of the Franciscan missionaries, with biographies of some of these pioneer friars. Book 2 begins with the division of the province between Michoacán and Jalisco (1606) and contains numerous biographies of the members of that order. Book 3 is also a series of lives and an account of the Custodio del Rio Verde. The second edition was published in Mexico (1882). It includes additional relevant documents in three appendices. At the end of the text there is a table of contents, but no index.

George McClelland Foster, Jr born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on October 9, 1913, died on May 18, 2006, at his home in the hills above the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as a professor from 1953 to his retirement in 1979, when he became professor emeritus. His contributions to anthropological theory and practice still challenge us; in more than 300 publications, his writings encompass a wide diversity of topics, including acculturation, long-term fieldwork, peasant economies, pottery making, public health, social structure, symbolic systems, technological change, theories of illness and wellness, humoral medicine in Latin America, and worldview. The quantity, quality, and long-term value of his scholarly work led to his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1976. Virtually all of his major publications have been reprinted and/or translated. Provenance from the executor of Foster's library laid in.

Condition:

Foster's stamp to title. Corners bumped, edge wear to boards, rubbing to paper boards else a very good copy.